The committee voted 12-10 to send the nomination to the Republican-controlled Senate for full consideration.
It was not immediately clear when the final confirmation vote will occur, but so far even nominees once seen as having uncertain prospects — including new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence — have been able to marshal sufficient support from Republicans.
Republicans praised Patel as the right person for the job, insisting he was needed to fix an FBI that they claim has been tainted by bias amid criminal investigations into Trump.
"The American people are sick and tired of two tiers of access, tiers of treatment and two tiers of justice. And during the Biden years, this was writ large in the acts of the DOJ and the FBI,” said GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
GOP Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida said that Patel "might not have served in the upper echelons of the FBI, but aren’t we asking this agency to set a new course? Don’t we want a nontraditional candidate at this moment in time, with extensive federal experience?”
A former Justice Department prosecutor, Patel attracted Trump's attention during his first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, he helped author a memo with pointed criticism of the FBI's dubious investigation into alleged ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign.
An extensive investigation found there was no truth to that claim and that Hillary Clinton's campaign had actually orchestrated events that led to the allegation.
Patel later joined Trump's administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the Defense Department.
